This invention relates to improvements in centrifugal pellet dryers and more particularly to the blade mounting rotor construction associated with such dryers.
The improvement of the present invention relates to pellet drying rotor assemblies of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,458,045 to Dudley, owned in common by the assignee of the present application. In such prior patented dryer, the rotor assembly mounts lifter blades which impel pellets upwardly through a cyiindrical, foraminous housing from which water is centrifugally discharged. The rotor construction is such, however, that pellets become entrapped by centrifugal force on vertical surfaces. The pellet build-up on such surfaces causes cross-contamination and rotor unbalance.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a rotor construction which will avoid pellet accumulation by centrifugal force on vertical entrapping surfaces, without sacrificing rotor strength and rigidity.